Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Pox on Sears

Our dishwasher is FINALLY fixed. Our less-than-a-year old, fancy, expensive, German-engineered Bosch dishwasher, which has been broken for about a month now, is finally fixed. (Knock on wood, hopefully I haven't just jinxed it.)

One day, as I said almost one month ago, we noticed that our lovely, gleaming, high tech, dream dishwasher was running but not actually washing anything with water. We called the Sears Service Department, with whom we have a fancy 3-year service plan, and they offered to send out a service tech the very next morning. Excellent! What service! What a deal!

The guy came out the next day, looked at the dishwasher, said he needed to order a part and he'd be back next Tuesday to install it. Tuesday morning, I still hadn't heard from him nor gotten a part, so I called the Sears people to inquire. They were very embarrassed to admit that not only was our part not scheduled to arrive earlier than Wednesday and as late as Friday, but also the tech had actually scheduled himself for Easter Sunday which shouldn't have even been possible in the computer system. We rescheduled for the earliest available time, the following Thursday which was more than a week away.

Thursday, April 1st (April Fools!! What fools), a new tech came out and informed us that not only was the part we got broken, but it also wasn't the right part to fix the problem. He said he would expedite the new part for Friday or Saturday delivery and be back Monday to install it. We off course did not get the part and called Sears, who said the part was not expedited, it was shipped on Friday and wouldn't be expected until Wednesday at the earliest. We rescheduled again.

Fortunately, the new motor did arrive on Tuesday and a tech came out that day and installed it. Unfortunately, the tech didn't install it properly and the dishwasher still didn't work. Now it was using water, but it didn't switch over to the rinse and dry cycles and so it never stopped running.

The next day another tech came out and said that a seal had been broken when the new motor was installed, which was very common, and he'd have to order a new one since our dishwasher was such a special little snowflake of a machine and we'd have to wait another 3-5 days.

The NEXT tech who came out on the 12th said that no, in fact, the seal wasn't the problem at all, the heater was busted. Guess what?! He'll order a new one! We were irate. We'd already had several angry phone calls with Sears at that point. We'd been offered gift cards and informed that if two more things break on the dishwasher before July, we'll get a whole new machine. We'd become those people who call up customer service reps and rant insanely over the phone.

Finally, the new heater arrives. A new tech comes out to the house. He lays in the kitchen floor, shines his flashlight under the dishwasher, and peers into the guts of the machine. "Here," he says, "look under here. See that white wire hanging down there? See where it's supposed to be plugged in to that box next to the red wire? That's what's wrong with your heater. I thought so, when I read your case description in the van. I thought it was probably going to be that wire." He was right. For once, once and for all, finally, finally, finally, they sent someone out who was right. He plugged in the wire and now we're all good. I wasn't sure whether to hug him or punch him in the face, so I just signed the work order and told him to have a nice day.

3 comments:

  1. Dear AMANDA,

    First, I would like to apologize that all the trouble that you have encountered with the repair of your dishwasher. As a consumer myself, I can surely understand how you felt toward the tech on the last service call. Here at Sears we do value you as a customer and would like the chance to look into this for you and get your feedback to pass on to the Technician’s Manager. My name is Shayne and I work for the Sears Cares Escalations Team and we are here for assistance. At your convenience please contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com so that we can further discuss your concerns. Please provide us a contact number and the phone number the dishwasher was purchased under and we will call you at your convenience. In addition, include your screen name (AMANDA) in the email so we can reference to your case.

    Thank you,

    Shayne W.
    Senior Case Manager
    Sears Cares

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whoa!! What happened here? Can't wait to hear what happens when you repond to this guy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We were given a free year added to our service plan and a $50 gift certificate. Behold, the power of the blogosphere! :) Thank you, Sears. We have hope that this was a fluke and we'll have more pleasant experiences in the future.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.